Boobie Tassels For Buddha

The Salton Sea(2002)
starring Val Kilmer

One of my favorite movies of all time. And that's saying a lot. I grew up enjoying old detective stories. The problem with most of the new Detective flicks is that they try way too hard to be noir, failing to realize that you shouldn't have to try. It should be subtle, not using rediculous dialogue, and internal monologue to beat you in the face with noir (Brick is a good example of that. terrible).
This movie is the exact opposite. It has the feeling of an old Detective story without being in your face.
It starts out with Val Kilmer as junkie Danny Parker, hanging out with speed freaks, and informing on other junkies to two narcotics detectives. He lives in a dump, and seems to have a life that's going nowhere. But like any good mystery nothing is as it seems.
The story goes back and forth through flashbacks to reveal the mystery of what happened at the Salton sea, and how Danny got to where he is. Tragedy landed him playing the part of a junkie, but he's there for a reason. Everything he does he does ultimately for justice.
He plays both sides of the law to solve the crime that has taken over his life. He's never who he appears to be, and you quickly find out that he's always in control. I can't say much about the plot without giving it away. Half the fun of the movie is the surprise of finding out whats really going on.
There are some great performances in The Salton Sea, including Vincent D'Onofrio as Pooh bear, a drug dealer who's put so much meth up his nose that he no longer has one, a rediculous plastic one taking its place. He's a ruthless criminal, but he has some pretty funny scenes.
Then there's Peter Sarsgaard (who you might remember from Garden State) playing Jimmy, a fellow junkie and Danny Parker's only real friend. He's one of those characters that you can't help but feel sorry for. Danny's playing everyone through the whole movie but Jimmy is a sweet genuine kid who would do anything for his friend and just got mixed up in the wrong scene. One of the best exchanges between the two is when he shows Danny that in honor of their friendship he got a tattoo of his face on his arm. He didn't have a picture of Kilmer's character so he described him to the tattoo artist from memory.
It's funny, it's sad, its entertaining and engrossing. And I know a certain someone doesn't like sad stories, so to you, I'll say it all works out in the end. It's in my top five of the last twenty years. watch it.


~Quantum

This is perhaps one the most emotional songs/movie scenes I've been able to enjoy. I love Platoon, and think it brought us several great actors, all while telling a story that you don't often see. That of the one through the eyes of the soldier them self.



Adagio for strings somehow manages to capture the raw emotion of the soldier's constant battle with not only the enemy, but his own moral values. Being a war vet myself, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think back on what I witnessed, and what I felt. It's something nobody can take away or compare to.

I love movies.

Even some of those truly awful movies that are so bad they're good.

I hate ranking things so this won't be a top (insert number here) list...just some movies that I love and think everyone should see.

Inherit the Wind - An absolutely brilliant movie based on the Scopes Monkey Trial that took place in Tennessee in 1926. You can look up the details but basically it was unlawful "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." John Scopes intentionally violated this law and was put on trial.

Spencer Tracy is amazing in it as the man defending Scopes (which was Clarence Darrow in the actual trial). What I really love is that the movie drives home the point that faith and science can be reconciled, and shows explicitly that ignorance and fear are the true evils. If a higher power created us as we are, he gave us out minds and free will and an insatiable curiosity that shouldn't be denied out of fear that we may have to see things in a different way.

Blazing Saddles - Comedies never get the credit they deserve. This may be the funniest movie ever made and it takes the uncomfortable topic of racism and laughs right in its face. There's a lesson in here for all of us. If you can laugh at it, it has no power over you. And if you can't laugh at this movie, there's something wrong with you.

The Big Sleep - Humphrey Bogart is my favorite actor. There is no close second. This is my favorite movie with him in it and one that doesn't quite get the respect it deserves. Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon get the huge acclaim, but I'll take The Big Sleep over both of them. Not only is it based on a brilliant novel by Raymond Chandler, but it has Lauren Bacall acting opposite Bogart who later became his wife. They are perfect together and every second they're on screen together just sizzles. It also has some of the best dialogue you'll ever find on film.

Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa may be the greatest filmmaker that ever lived. I would recommend any movie he made, but Seven Samurai is his masterpiece. He invented modern storytelling on film. His camera work and methods are still used today and I don't think there are any great modern filmmakers that wouldn't list him as an influence on their work. Seven Samurai also has the benefit of some truly brilliant performances by some of the top Japanese actors of the time. Everyone the loves movies should see this film.

Akira - I suppose my love of anime (Japanese animation) should get its own blog, but Akira is the movie that truly got me hooked and opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of animation. In the hands of people that aren't afraid to push boundaries, animation can create worlds and explore concepts that would make Walt Disney shit bricks. Akira pushed the limits of violence and science fiction like nothing I'd seen before.

To explain the plot and explore the ideas presented would take days. It isn't my favorite anime film, or even the one that makes me think the most (Evangelion gets that nod) but it was the first that really blew my mind. And just from an artistic viewpoint it is beautiful to look at. I wore out my VCR pausing the screen over and over to try and catch all the details the artists poured into it.


A Clockwork Orange - I'm singing in the rain...just singing in the rain. If you laughed at that, just skip to the next movie. Stanley Kubrick is one of my favorite directors. It's hard to find one that almost never lets you down. A Clockwork Orange is a fun little piece of filmmaking that doesn't take itself too seriously while somehow being very serious. I'm sure there is some deep commentary in there about violence and disenchanted youth in the word today, but I'm usually giggling too hard to notice.

The movie uses such unique dialogue and a hodgepodge of film techniques that you kind of feel off balance the whole time. It all fits together brilliantly and you're having so much fun watching this charming little sociopath that all the messages and meanings hit you much later.


The Quiet Man - My favorite John Wayne movie and a glimpse at how beautiful a country Ireland is. I will get there someday. It's the story of an Irish American boxer that returns to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm. It's a wonderful little love story with plenty of humor, a great brawl, and a wonderful showcase for the beauty and culture of Ireland. If this movie doesn't charm you then you probably don't have a heart. John Ford and John Wayne may be the best director/actor combo of all time and this movie proves that it doesn't apply only to Westerns. It's one of those movies that just makes you feel warm inside...makes you feel good. We all need that sometimes.


The Petrified Forest - I've mentioned this movie in a blog before. The story of a man who has lost everything but finds meaning in giving the only thing he has left to give. Sometimes that's all you can hope for. To find something or someone worth giving everything you have for. This movie actually made me cry the first time I saw it. Leslie Howard is one of the most understated and underrated actors of all time. His interactions with Davis and Bogart in this movie are just brilliant. He's on another level. This is worth seeing just for his performance.


The Third Man - This film gets me in two ways. The first way is in the absolute beautiful way it is filmed. This is why I love black and white movies. This would lose so much of its power if it were in color. It's art on film. Second is in the underlying theme, which is unrequited love. It's something that's always there under the surface and many miss it because of the more obvious murder mystery laid over the top of it. If you don't get it after the scene with the cat, then you're not really paying attention.



I think that's enough for now. I hope to do a similar blog about books eventually.

And if you're reading this, go do the same thing. I like finding new movies to watch and books to read. Ya'll are some of the smartest and most interesting people I know. Gimme culture...gimme insight and expand my horizons...make me think dammit, and give me entertainment that will leave me fulfilled.

The Secret of NIMH is an animated film that has always meant quite a lot to me. I am a long time fan of animation of all kinds, but specifically of traditional hand drawn animation. I love the classic Disney movies...Snow White, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty...these were as much works of art as they were great movies. In the 70's and early 80's Disney began to move away from the more traditional animation techniques which were costly and time consuming. They were putting out films that used basic animation techniques and relied more on catchy songs than good stories and quality animation.

In 1979 Don Bluth and fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, along with eight other animation staff, left Walt Disney Productions animation department to set up their own independent studio, Don Bluth Productions. They left because they wanted to take animated films back to the classic Disney era with strong characters and stories, and experimenting with unusual and more complex animation techniques.

Among the techniques experimented with were multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, and backlit animation (where animated mattes are shot with light shining through color gels to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects), multiple color palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments to underwater. These techniques created effects and details that are only rivaled by modern computer animation and they did everything painstakingly by hand. The staff worked 100 hour weeks to get the movie done on time and under budget and the producers, Bluth, Goldman, Pomeroy and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film.

The Secret of NIMH was their first feature film, based on the novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. Ironically Disney turned down the offered rights to this book in 1972. Bluth and his team poured their hearts, time, and every skill at their disposal into making this film. From strictly a visual standpoint it is amazing to look at. The animation is detailed and fluid and the backgrounds are stunning. There is not a piece of this movie that you cannot tell had the full attention of the animators.

The story is also quite entertaining and rather dark at times with a fair amount of violence. It's a very real story set in a world of fantasy and science fiction....no fairy tales or prince charmings here. It tells the tale of a field mouse named Mrs. Brisby (they had to change it from Frisby because of trademark issues with Frisbee's) who seeks the help of a tribe of genetically enhanced rats in order to move her home and save her son. It's a complex and moving story with wonderful voice acting and a brilliant score. I don't like talking about plot too much because good stories should be experienced. You can go to Wikipedia if you want a more detailed breakdown of her connection to the rats and what NIMH means.

I highly recommend this movie to any fan of animation, and recommend it in general because it is such a good movie. It is a labor of love by a group of animators that truly loved their art. There is no doubt in my mind that Don Bluth and his team helped push animated film back into prominence and shamed Disney into putting care back into their films, though nothing they've made since can come close to the quality of NIMH or their classic films. It is a masterpiece and I wish more people knew about it. You can find a fully restored version of NIMH on dvd as well as online on Hulu. See it if you can.

Street Fight (2005)
Starring Corey Booker and Sharpe James
Directed by Marshall Curry

I'll start by saying I'm a huge Documentary nerd. When I have free time to watch a movie, my vote is always for a documentary. The drama of real life generally is just a lot more interesting than anything that can be thought up. This movie is easily in my top five.
Corey Booker is a young democrat trying to challenge Sharpe James for the position of Mayor in Newark, a largely African American city in New Jersey. It's an uphill battle as James has been mayor for over 20 years, and the people seem to love him. As the story unfolds, you come to realize that there's more fear than love. Fear of the unknown mostly. Everyone seems to know that Sharpe is a thief, liar and thug, but he's the devil you know.
A lot of the movie ends up being racial politics, as Booker is an educated lighter skinned black man, who really seems to care about the people and the poverty of Newark. James uses this to attack him. sending out literature calling him white, or jewish, or just using his education to claim that he knows nothing of the struggle the people of the city face. Never bringing up that his parents were part of the civil rights movement and fought so their son wouldn't have to struggle. Meanwhile James, who in his defense did grow up in poverty, has lived in a mansion for years, and used taxpayer money to his own benefit over and over again. James is most definitely the villain, but even so steals the show, turning every negative into a positive for his own campaign.
You see Booker struggle with smear campaigns, but Sharpe James doesn't have that problem. he will lie, steal, and even use city resources to make sure he keeps his position as mayor, at one point using the police to intimidate store owners with Booker signs in their windows, to tear down signs put up in public places, and attack camera men who get too close to the mayor.

I'd say this movie is a must see, and I won't give away the ending, but if you're into politics you'll know that Sharpe James faced several Federal charges, and this movie was part of the reason.

If you have netflix Street Fight is on instant watch, if not I'd suggest you track it down. definitely worth the time.

~Quantum